Convention Business

Center Faces Challenges

New facilities in Richmond and Virginia Beach, as well as in Maryland, will make for fierce competition.

Today, two new regional convention centers are going up -- the Hampton Roads Convention Center in Hampton and the Virginia Beach Convention Center in Virginia Beach.

FOR THE RECORD - Published correction ran Wednesday, March 23, 2005.A story in Tuesday's Local News section incorrectly stated that a portion of the Virginia Beach Convention Center is already open. The first phase of the Virginia Beach center will open in June. (Text corrected)

In addition, the Greater Richmond Convention Center also is winning a share of the regional convention business, and for once, area convention officials said Virginia has a reason to say that it could be considered a convention destination spot.

But critics warn that three convention centers less than 120 miles from each other is a recipe for disaster for an industry that continues to report a decreasing number of convention events and attendees.

Heywood Sanders, a professor of public policy at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said the demand of convention space isn't moving as fast as the construction of new centers or meeting venues.

Sanders said an estimated 6.8 million square feet, the size of 33 Super Wal-Marts, is either proposed or now under construction across the country.

The 344,000-square-foot Hampton Roads Convention Center is set to open in a few months. The center's exhibit halls already are open for meetings.

The 516,000-square-foot Virginia Beach Convention Center is set to open in January 2007. The first phase of the project will open in June with 79,000 square feet. The Richmond convention center offers 700,000 square feet.

"Unless the market is expanding at a steady clip, area convention centers end up competing with one another for national bookings," Sanders said. "And concerning state and local events, area convention centers usually cannibalize each other trying to get area business.

Area convention officials argue that the real competition isn't found locally, but in places like Savannah, Ga.; Nashville, Tenn.; and Charleston, S.C., where the markets are similar in size. Then, they add, it's not only the convention center itself that creates bookings, but the retail, entertainment and restaurant offerings that give convention-goers something to do during down time.

Sallie Grant-DiVenuti, executive director of the Hampton Convention & Visitors Bureau, said each of the area convention centers has its own niche.

"Each of the buildings are all very different," Grant-DiVenuti said.

"Meetings of 600 to 2,000 people will be our bread and butter. The new convention center allows us to keep some of the business we would have lost if we'd only had the Coliseum as a meeting venue."

Sanders warns it's not only local competition that area convention officials need to worry about.

In Prince George's County, Maryland, where Gaylord Hotels is set to open a hotel/convention center in March 2008, competition awaits on 300-acres of prime real estate along the Potomac River.

In addition to the convention center and hotels, the development will offer 1 million square feet of retail, dining and entertainment along the waterfront.

"It's just another venue not too far away that has a lot of history of competitive success," Sanders said.

The convention business in Virginia Beach will be built around an existing convention base established from running conventions through the Virginia Beach Pavilion over the years, said Pamela Lingle, a spokeswoman for the Virginia Beach Convention & Visitors Bureau.

"We're not trying to build a new business," Lingle said. "We're trying to build on the existing pieces of business we could have lost because we couldn't compete for the larger convention business before."

Lingle said there were 62 out-of-town conventions and trade shows set up at the beach convention center from 2005 to 2010. Those events are estimated to bring in $105 million in economic impact. She said the state market for conventions tends to rotate through the state's convention offerings.

"Those always rotate," she said.

At the convention center in Hampton, there are 34 bookings for out-of-town groups, DiVenuti said.

Lingle said a large part of the decision process for booking an event comes from what has been developed around the convention center itself.

"There has to be convention-quality hotels, good restaurants and entertainment. It's a package," Lingle said.

"It's the synergy of everything going on city-side that makes us competitive. Before we weren't even on the radar screen in terms of people looking at us for a convention."

For the really small markets, smaller cities are building and planning conference centers that will cater to area corporations like Northrop Grumman and Ferguson, which all look for meeting spaces for their employees at some point.

Newport News Mayor Joe Frank said the conference center and Marriott Hotel planned for City Center at Oyster Point is under development solely for area companies to utilize for their employees.